Chapter Three Revealed Secrets make for Silver Magic
September 1st
Luci stood farther back from the door as a line of first years trekked past her into the Great Hall, bringing up the rear was Professor McGonagall who gave her a comforting pat on the back before proceeding ahead of the first years to begin the Sorting Hat ceremony.
Names were read off, segregation was initiated, and blossoming friendships were shattered as children, innocent children were set against each other because of their house, or their rank, or their blood. A young girl with a muggle last name approached the sorting hat amid jeers and shouts of discrimination, because of her last name her life would be hell from here on out.
Unless she turned into one of two things, a shy, quiet homework answering machine or the tough, reclusive, kick ass chick who tolerated no crap and had no real friends to turn to.
Luci wished her neither but the latter was by far the safest, she found the back of Blacks head. Of coarse her alternative had been ideal...for a few years. But a brand new muggleborn stood no chance of catching her ideal dream for the small girl.
As she was sorted into Ravenclaw, Luci knew her fate had been decided for her and smiled slightly as a tall black girl motioned her over to sit next to her. After many of the students were sorted out, she made her way slowly behind the stragglers and entered into the Great Hall.
A great whisper rippled through the crowd and she took a deep breath as she walked slowly down the aisle toward the empty area, placed wonderfully in the very center of the table, jerks.
Don had left her to return to his own table where her wonderful uncle was seated, glaring at her maliciously. Luci was walking slowly toward this empty space, when suddenly the attention was quickly drawn away from her as a yell rose up from the back of the hall and a girl with short spiky purplish-blue hair was shoved off her seat into the aisle, as everyone turned to look Luci slipped into the empty seat,
"Traitor! I knew from the beginning you were a snake. We trust you, and this is how you repay us! Slut! Leave! I never want to see you cross our path again! You try and push this and you'll regret more than that! Your through with us!", he yelled.
The girl sat on the floor for a moment starring up in shocked confusion before she stood up shakily at first but then gracefully lifted herself to her feet. She sneered down at them even as her hands shook,
"So this is how it goes. She turns a couple of tricks and suddenly she's got you wrapped around her little finger. Fine, I'm done!", she said pulling something from around her neck and flinging it into the face of the boy,
"If all it takes to bring you to your knees is a few seductive glances and a little promiscuity then I'm done with you anyway" she said harshly before she was suddenly thrown against the table behind her by some inexplicable force that Luci knew nothing of. She turned to look behind at the teachers table and frowned as they all sat starring quietly at the scene unfolding before them, turning back she watched as the girl stood up slowly and dusted herself off before starring coldly at the person seated before her,
"Your loss, you bugger", there was harsh laughter and the girl walked regally down the aisle toward Luci. When she approached her seat Luci starred up at her and met liquid silver nitrate with a ring of hard emerald green around the iris. As everyone turned to their neighbor to speculate a loud clearing of the throat silenced them. The girl sat down beside her and clasped her trembling hands into fists before looking up at the Professors table.
Luci turned just in time for Dumbeldore to commence his beginning of the year speech. Thoughts drifting, she missed most of it, noting here and there things that had changed since her last year here.
Her eyes happened to drift from her perusal of the Great Hall to the girl beside her and was startled to see a blue orange flame leaping across her fingertips, slowly it coalesced on her palm like a drop of mercury and settled there.
Suddenly a clear sky blue eye opened from within the living flame and then another. A black nose appeared, and then a diminutive pink tongue, Luci startled in her seat and watched curiously as the small orange blue flame looked curiously around before it's eyes caught on her and she twitched.
It slid off the girls palm to hover a few seconds above her palm before floating closer to Luci's face. She pulled back quickly as it hovered closer to her face, the heat from it emanating against her face seemingly very real. It blinked owlishly for a moment as food appeared on the table before them.
Apparently the speech was over and as everyone around them dug into the feast. Luci reached out tentatively to run her finger suspiciously underneath the small flame. No magic emanated from beneath it nor above, it seemed from Luci's point of view to be self sustaining. The small creature floated slowly to hover over Luci's palm as she held it open.
Starring around the table curiously she picked a small fork out of one of the table and placed it before the small fire creature. It abruptly engulfed the end of the fork and Luci held it up to peer into the belly of the creature where the fork could barely be seen, simply melting into oblivion. After the end of the fork disintegrated the small flame creature smiled up at her before hiccupping. It was part terrifying and part adorable.
Slowly thought eh small flame creature wavered before drifting slowly down toward her palm, she looked wide eyed at eh girl beside her who had commenced to eat. The girl looked over at her for a brief second before she snapped it up quickly just as a tall looming shadow engulfed them and Luci turned to stare up at Professor McGonagall,
"What was that previous display about, Miss Silver?",
"Nothing of any importance", she said
"Well remind your comrades that we do not allow magic not within our classrooms. The girl smiled up wickedly and snapped her fingers, the small flame creature reappeared on her fingertips, it bounced happily from fingertip to fingertip gurgling, Luci assumed. McGonagall stood quite still for a moment as her face grew red and splotchy, before she turned on her heel sharply and walked away, Luci starred after her for a moment before turning to the girl beside her and cocking her head to the side,
"Impressive but not sufficient enough in every situation", she exclaimed.
"Sufficient! Do you know how long it took me to learn how to do that? Most mages can't even manage a fire creature at all much less one with some semblance of intelligence",
"So you're a mage?"
"Well yeah", she murmured waving the small fire creature before her eyes, Luci blinked, and her smile faded quickly,
"So what are you doing in a Witches and a Wizards School?…",
"Last year my school was destroyed by the Deatheaters. So we were transferred here, temporarily of coarse, until our school can be rebuilt"
"Why",
"So we don't have to live here forever
"No, why did they attack your school",
"We're mages, wielders of wandless magic, what other reason do you need?",
"well there is the fact that you haven't been attacked before and Deatheaters have been around fro a couple of years now. Why now? And why not Hogwarts too, Dumbeldore is a far greater target than a few child mages", The girl glared at her,
"Well how am I supposed to know anyway? It's not like I'm in league with the death eaters",
"Your companions think differently", the girls face paled and the green around her iris bled abnormally into the silver of her eyes,
"How did you know about that",
"I assumed",
"Assumptions are dangerous", Luci nodded and turned back to the table to gather food onto her plate,
"Where have you been the past year or so anyway?",
"Loony Bin", Luci murmured solemnly, the girl slowly turned her head in Luci's direction,
"Any particular reason?",
"I murdered someone", the girl laughed before looking quickly into Luci's solemn face and quieting,
"You'll never make friends with that attitude",
"I don't plan on it, do you?",
"Currently, I'm alone and with out a family group. Under the circumstances I'm looking for something",
"What house?"
"Where?",
"Here?", the girl burst into giggles,
"They wouldn't dare splitting us from our family groups, that's suicide",
"They're teachers",
"yes, but were not there students, our weakest link is by far more powerful than anyone in this dingy castle, were a whole 'another species compared to you",
"That's why they all sat and watched while what's his face slammed you", her eyes dropped for the slightest moment before coming back up quickly,
"yeah, by instruction of our professor, they're not to interfere with our family groups or our education and/or discipline. Were just renting room here."
"You don't even attend classes?",
"Once or twice a week, a Professor or two come out of the forest and teach but other than that no, some of the older students are continuing lessons with the younger students but groups like Rafe's and Manuals don't exactly play by the rules",
"Rafe?", Luci murmured with a smirk, the girl pointed back toward the mahogany haired boy down the table. His head whipped around and lightening silver blue eyes speared the girl, she straitened her spine and turned back to Luci,
"Raphael Thatcher", Luci nodded and looked up as the teachers stood to leave and the plates cleared, students all around stood up to walk out as Luci sat in silence and the girl beside her starred quietly down at her hands.
Luci rocked her head back to stare up at the night sky for a moment before she went to stand up. Sirius was standing farther on down the table staring at her. Potter had already walked away and Remus was grabbing Sirius's arm and dragging him off toward the entrance hall. Luci smiled slowly and he just starred before Remus jerked him around and they walked off after Potter, Luci looked back down at the girl who was swirling an odd silver liquid in her palm,
"Would you cut that out",
"What?",
"What's your name",
"Silver", Luci cocked an eyebrow skeptically. The girl looked down at the liquid in her palm, it slowly slid back through her pores and left a small silver splotch between the girls thumb and pointer finger, along the small webbed skin, like foil.
"It really is my name", Luci nodded.
"First name?", the girl looked up,
"Gabriele",
"Isn't that a boys name?",
"Would you believe my parents were hoping for a boy", Luci nodded and stood watching as the crowds slowly dispersed. The teachers had all left and the candles were dimming slowly,
"Where are you staying?",
"The 8th floor",
"We have an 8th floor?",
"hmmm",
"I'm bunking with you tonight", Gabriele looked up startled,
"Your what?",
"I haven't been in my dorm since everything…fell apart. I'm not going back there, I'm bunking with you",
"Hey, you can't just order a girl…",
"I just did", Gabriele eyed her oddly,
"Your so odd?",
"You got that right, lets go. I'm tired and I'm pissed and I didn't eat dinner",
"You got enough complaints?",
"You have no idea?", Luci murmured as Gabriele marched from the Great Hall. Luci stood and looked around the empty hall, a flicker caught her eye and she looked back quickly just in time to meet a pair of silver blue eyes. She stood watching Raphael as he leaned casually against a wall and watched her. She crossed her arms across her chest and smiled wickedly at him before he shimmered transparently and flickered out and she was left quietly alone. She stood there for a moment before walking quietly through the hall, her footsteps inaudible and her form dim in the shadows surrounding her.
Luci rolled restlessly in the bunk above Gabriele's bed. She hadn't been able to sleep all night, granted the introductions and then welcome back talk between the girls below her had lasted until 1:00, in which she had sat and watched them all quietly. She hadn't seen so many teenage girls since the teen suicide kids had done a play about the miracle of life,that had been disgusting.
When they had all finally drifted off to slepp, Luci had proceeded to black out occasionally for a few minutes. It wasn't like sleeping in this damn skirt on a uncovered mattress was comfortable. Her trunk had been left in the Gryfindor common room so she had simply crawled into the bunk and rolled onto her side.
Moonlight from above had shone down on her and she lifted her hands to watch the shadows dance on the wall. Restless and immune to sleep she had fidgeted endlessly, rolling back and forth. As the night had grown darker and darker and the cold had seeped in to wrap about her like a chilly shawl, the hairs on her legs had stood up on end until she wa shivering so bad, her rattling teeth had woken everyone around, or she assumed because murmurs of, 'get the girl a blanket!' 'would someone shut her up!' 'it's not that cold!' echoed in the room.
A girl with vivid crimson hair had finally thrown a fluffy wool blanket up to her and gone back to bed. The blanket had ended up tangled around her ankles for all her fidgetting and she had alternated between ebbing cold and wrapping herself in it and being hot and throwing it off in frustration, her eyes felt strained and gritty and her head was throbbing.
The doctor had forbidden her from taking her sleeping pills any longer but this was suicide, insominatic suicide. She rubbed her eyes agitatedly before rolling onto her back. Starring up at the ceiling, she let her thoughts run back over the day. The previous day she guessed, what was wrong with her?
Her head was spinning and she felt nauseous. Something was wrong, something was faulty. Her hands reached for her cloak, hung carelessly against a post and pulled from it's inside pocket a vile of pills. She held them up to the skylight and starred at the little blue pills that rolled around inside the glass vile.
A scuffle was heard below and Luci shoved the vial beneath her arm, as silently Midnight leapt from the bed beside to land neatly before her,
"So you decided to come home did you?", he starred up at her poignantly before nosing the bottle from beneath her arm,
" What? What do you want? You can't have any of these" she said pulling them far from his reach, "As it is I'm running out", she muttered. He continued to stare up at her poignantly with big luminescently eerie blue green eyes, he meowed pitifully and swiped at the hand that held the vial now lowered to Luci's lap.
She dropped it and hissed as pain arched up from her hand. The scratches on her hand looked fairly clean until she flexed her fingers and blood welled up from beneath the wound, she scowled down at him. " What did you do that for? I need to sleep Midnight, no sleep means no intake of knowledge", she muttered. The cat starred up at her sorrowfully for a moment before curling his tail around his body and laying down.
"Oh don't give me that look! It's not like you don't have your own vices"
"Shut up!", someone mumbled,
"sorry" Luci whispered. She wiped the back of her hand on the sheets and left a few dark streaks of blood across the mattress before picking the vial up again and holding it up before her eyes between her thumb and forefinger. She dropped it into her palm and spilled two of the small blue pills into her hand,
"To sleep or not to sleep, that is the question", she murmured. Rolling them around on the palm of her hand, she starred up above her and clasped the pills tight in her fist. The clouds obscured the night sky, and clarity was not to be gleened from the heavenly bodies,
"Ahh well, bottoms up" before she took a deep breath and popped them into her mouth. With a gulp they slid slimily down her throat and she gagged a bit before starring back up at the sky, the clouds had cleared and she frowned,
"How odd", before falling to her pillow with a thump. She lay there on her side starring at the expanse of stone beside her, spiderline cracks spreading from a point not far from her face. She concentrated on them as her eyes closed and a warm gray fog rolled over her body,
I'm back, no more nurses, no more whitewashed walls, no more concerned faces, no more supervised entertainment, I'm back……but for how long? she thought before she was enveloped in a numb mindless sleep.